Reader, I take you back to a more innocent time. Maybe around ten years ago, can't be any less that that because I've lived in the Great Wen for ages now. Not pre-internet, but a time when the internet wasn't up to much in terms of music, or at least, the music I was listening to in them days (careful, I'll start reminiscing about the size of Wagon Wheel biscuits and Spangles in a minute). It was when I lived at home in Shrewsbury and felt very cut off from things in the very tangible way that living in the middle of nowhere does to you.
I somehow found out about this amazing fanzine called ddddd that was written by Simon who would always send you a rambling letter on the back of a newspaper. His fanzine was a stream of consciousness, typewritten with a broken typewriter, a rush of music reviews, opinion, pure bile and utter common sense about life and everything. I must have sent a whole load of (I imagine, pretty embarrassing) rambling letters myself, because I had a whole load of ddddds in a box, each lovingly photocopied and stuck together with white tape (am I right?). Well, about a year ago this whole period of my life came back to me in a rush, and I remember being drunk and talking to at least three people at gigs (er, sorry guys!) about this fanzine, and they all thought I was making it up. When I went to visit mum and dad I rooted round for this box, to no avail. I spent an age looking on the internet for Simon, despite knowing deep down he wasn't really the blogging type. Well, today I got an email telling me about ddddd fanzine online. I know! Amazing! Apparently this has been going on some time (damn you Google) under my nose and there's some good stuff. There's a cracking interview with Neil Campbell (the description of his son in the cinema had me laughing out loud) and the range of issues online suggests Simon's working on a manifesto for New Luddism, which seems like a very appealing prospect at the current time. You can find ddddd online here http://ddddfanzine.wikispaces.com/
claire x
